PM says younger voters won't like Latham's Bush comments

AM - Thursday, 4 December , 2003 08:00:00

Reporter: Matt Brown

DAVID HARDAKER: To Canberra, where new Opposition leader Mark Latham is continuing to weather the heat over his attack earlier this year on President Bush.

It seems the Prime Minister has spotted an opening too good to miss. Mr Howard has indicated he'll continue to target the new Labor leader over national security and the alliance with the United States and Mr Howard argues that it's younger voters who'll be turned off by Mark Latham's views on the US President.

Matt Brown reports from Canberra.

MATT BROWN: The Prime Minister, more than 20 years older than Mark Latham, says the age of our national leaders has no effect on their electoral appeal.

JOHN HOWARD: If the younger person offers the best hope, then the public will vote for them. If the older person offers the best hope, they'll vote for him or her as well. I… it is just an irrelevant factor.

MATT BROWN: Similarly, Mr Howard doesn't think his unwillingness to declare an intention to lead his Party all through the next term of government will count against him with the Australian people at the next election.

JOHN HOWARD: I don't think that is an issue that's going to concern them. I think they respect the fact that I'm being candid and not finding some clever form of words.

MATT BROWN: But the Prime Minister thinks age will play a role in the political debate, amongst voters, not leaders.

On the ABC's Lateline program last night, he repeated his assertion that Mark Latham's views on the war in Iraq, in particular his criticism of US President George W. Bush, compared with his soft line on British Prime Minister Tony Blair, will count against him.

JOHN HOWARD: You have a Labour Prime Minister of Britain and a centre-right Republican President of the United States – one of them is called every name under the sun and the other escaped scot-free. I mean, that's tribalism of a pretty obvious form and it's not only that issue but it's all the other ways in which he talks tribal.

I think that's out of date and divisive. I think we have, as a nation, moved on from that. We are living in a very detribalised political environment.

MATT BROWN: Mark Latham says he doesn't regret calling George W. Bush flaky and dangerous, and his comments were made in the context of one of the most serious decisions a national leader can take, sending young Australians to war.

But John Howard thinks Mark Latham's record will turn off the very voters who might be attracted to Labor's decision to go for generational change.

JOHN HOWARD: I think this dated, divisive tribal approach to politics is a turnoff for younger voters. My reading of younger voters in Australia is that they are the most detribalised political generation that this country has had and they're interested in what you offer them and how you respond to their hopes and aspirations, not whether you're a dyed-in-the-wool Liberal block or a dyed-in-the-wool Labor man.

I mean, I'm proud of my Liberal background, but I recognise that I must govern for all Australians.

MATT BROWN: Credibility on national security and economic management are said to be the two prime requirements for winning government. So hammering away at Mark Latham on this front is crucial, at least in part, because the new Labor leader's focus on housing affordability and the pain of rising interest rates will hurt the Government in key electorates. And the Prime Minister's discomfort with the Reserve Bank's intention to raise rates to what it calls "a neutral setting" is clear.

JOHN HOWARD: And I'm not even sure that I want to get into the debate about whether you should aim for a neutral setting, whatever you might think that should be. Some adjustments in both directions, even in a strong economy, are inevitable.

DAVID HARDAKER: The Prime Minister, Mr Howard. Matt Brown with that report.